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Intranet Benefits Realisation Plan
he Millennium Experience It was also over budget, with
building costs of "£70m (against
A successful project is one the "£25m British Airways had
that delivers on-spec originally planned to spend).
('quality'), time and cost. However, an average of about
Right? Well consider these two 10,000 people a day now ride the
projects...The Millennium Dome wheel, making the London Eye the
was delivered on time for the 31 UK's biggest tourist attraction
December 1999 and safely within a (and generating "£15 million of
budget (fixed in 1998) of "£289 trading profit a year) - a
million. The Project was also healthy return on investment for
delivered to quality, albeit the shareholders.
against a Specification that had
been adjusted several times A New Mindset for Change Projects
during the project to simplify
the scope of work required (and Traditional methodologies for
ensure that time and cost change / project management (of
deadlines could still be met). which PRINCE is an example) tend
However, visitor number targets to focus primarily on time, cost
were greatly overestimated, the and quality. Benefits are all too
business a total flop and the often only implicitly recognised
whole endeavour deemed a failure and the accountability for
by many. realising them is assumed to lie
outside the project.
The Millennium Wheel (or "London
Eye") opened one month late on a However, the pace of change
dreary February morning in 2000 within our society, industry and
(following problems raising the business grows ever faster.
wheel and then safety & quality Somewhat paradoxically, there is
issues with one of the 32 pods). an ever-greater need to ensure
that changes 'stick' (delivering Recent research from the
sustainable benefit and Cranfield University School of
competitive advantage to the Management finds that 78% of
organisations making them). Most IT-enabled change projects (in
businesses have already achieved large UK companies) fail to
greater efficiency and deliver business benefits. 47%
effectiveness within single believed assessment of business
functions or processes; The benefits in business cases was
challenge of the 21st Century is poor or worse and 79% said that
increasingly how to realise all the available benefits were
end-to-end change across a not captured during that
boundary-less business. assessment. 45% believed benefits
were overstated in their
Rarely (these days) will a single organisation to get investment
customer sponsor a single approval.
project, delivering a single
system into a single department. Arguably, this will only change
when project managers and their
The leadership challenge is thus people become accountable for -
how to engage multiple sponsors and obsessed by - delivering
and change agents across the business benefits and value
whole business to deliver through Change, rather than
excellence in change and the simply projects to time and cost.
ruthless pursuit of business
benefits and true return on Benefits Defined
investment (ROI).0
Soft Benefits (sometime called
The Case for a focus on Benefits "non-quantifiable" benefits) are
Management those intangible improvements to
be obtained from a change,
including improved employee to realisable items for which can
satisfaction, better customer individual or team had be held
satisfaction, increased knowledge accountable. Such benefits
sharing and re-use of include cost avoidance (i.e.
intellectual capital. Whilst it costs not currently budgeted that
is often accepted that such might otherwise become payable)
benefits do lead to financial and capacity creation (where
gain, it is deemed impossible to efficiency savings free up people
demonstrate a proven causal link to undertake high-value adding
that would enable one to place a tasks but do lot lead directly to
financial value on the benefit. the release of FTEs or other
costs).
Direct Benefits are those which
lead to a measurable impact on The Benefit Realisation Toolset
the bottom-line of the
organisation, including increased In the Benefits Realisation
revenue, reduced costs of sale / section of my free-to-read
improved margin, operating cost Intranet Portal Guide, I outline
reduction (e.g. through reduced a number of tools that can be
headcount) and improvements in used to better manage benefits on
working capital (e.g. through a the typical portal project.
faster debt collection cycle). An
individual or team can be held 1) An enhanced Business Case:
directly to account for achieving Many business cases simply do not
them and providing evidence of sufficiently reference Benefits.
their realisation. Make sure that you dedicate at
least as many column-inches to
Indirect Benefits are those which benefits as you do to costs.
facilitate or enable bottom-line Split benefits between soft,
impact, without leading directly direct and indirect. Ensure that
direct benefits are included in (e) where it will impact. If
the ROI, NPV or IRR calculations there are risks or dependencies
and that the people who will be to the benefit realisation, these
accountable for their realisation should be noted and managed in
have signed them off. the plan. Finally, it should be
clear in the plan how the benefit
2) The Benefits Blueprint: realisation will be objectively
Create a document that shows how measured and evidenced (e.g.
your benefits link to actual through the monitoring of key
business process changes, performance indicators).
projects or deliverables and
changes to systems. Suitable 4) Benefit Evidence:
tools can be found in Cranfield's In my guide, I suggest the use of
Benefits Network approach, the Benefit Sign-off sheets, whereby
Six Sigma toolset and as add-ons the benefit owner identified at
to PRINCE. Position the overall the Business Case and Planning
result in the context of your stage is expect to sign-off once
vision and strategy. This will she is satisfied that the benefit
help you capture all the benefits has been realised. Evidence
and to sharpen what you need to supporting the sign-off should
do to achieve them. also be attached to the sign-off
sheet. This is a good discipline,
3) The Benefits Realisation Plan: to keep everyone honest.
The key control document, a good
Realisation Plan includes, for Conclusions
each benefit, (a) a description
of what the benefit is, (b) how The 21st Century Project Manager
much it is worth, (c) who will be needs to be obsessed with
accountable for it's realisation, delivering business benefits and
(d) when it will be realised and value through change, rather than
simply projects to time, cost and back with my guide for further
quality. There are tools that can help and templates you can
help, including in particular the download.
Benefits Realisation Plan. Good
luck and don't forget to check
About the Author:
David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.
Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://viney.com/intranet_watch.
Read more articles by: David Viney
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
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